Another mystery! This is the second one in the series that started with Magpie Murders, which I enjoyed a lot. This one has a similar framing device, except that the order of operations is slightly different: in the first book, the book editor had to solve the real life murder in order to solve the incomplete mystery manuscript, and in this one, the answer to one and possibly two real life murders can be found in a complete published mystery.
This book was something of a pickle for me - the overall structure of the mystery worked just as well for me as the first book did, where in all three mysteries the reveals and explanations were clever and fit together perfectly, even though I couldn't have predicted the outcome. Unfortunately, there is also a very clear thread of homophobia running throughout this book, one that started in the first book but didn't fully bloom until the sequel. I'm sure that the defense of it would simply be that "well there really are some gay men who are like that" and so forth, but I started to have a bad feeling about it halfway through the story, and then by the end it was about as bad and frankly cliched as it could be. I really enjoy the mystery within the mystery of the structure, but I really can't in good conscience recommend this book.
Grade: C
